The Catwalk (episode)
When a deadly neutronic storm threatens the ship, the crew must take refuge for eight days inside the maintenance shafts of the warp nacelles. Summary An away team, led by Captain Archer with Commander Tucker and Ensign Mayweather, is preparing for a survey of a planet that Archer describes as "teeming" with plant and animal life. Archer and Tucker talk excitedly about the mission as they board Shuttlepod 1. Tucker remarks that there is a gorge on the planet five times bigger than the Grand Canyon, and suggests "a little river rafting." He adds that there will be plenty of daylight, because there are only 4 days of night in an entire month due to the planet's binary suns. Archer estimates the survey will take at least a week, adding that there should be time for some R&R. T'Pol radios from the bridge that an alien vessel approaches and is hailing ''Enterprise''. Rellus Tagrim appears on the shuttlepod's display, introduces himself, expresses relief and asks permission to come aboard as soon as possible, because a neutronic storm is "almost here." Tucker checks the Enterprise sensors, which do not detect anything. Rellus says that the sensors won't detect the wave for a few minutes because it is traveling at high warp speed, and that they should go to Warp 7 as soon as he and his crew are aboard. Archer informs Rellus that his top speed is Warp 5. Act One T'Pol announces that the wavefront spans for more than half a dozen light years, and tells of a Vulcan starship that encountered a similar class 5 storm over a century ago and was nearly destroyed. Enterprise has 4 hours until the arrival of the storm. Reed claims that with the proper reinforcement the ship can survive through it, but Doctor Phlox warns that even if the Enterprise survives, the crew will not, as the storm is saturated with deadly radiolytic isotopes. Phlox suggests that Sickbay could be a safe place, but it will not hold the entire crew. Tucker reminds the senior staff about the catwalk in the warp nacelles, one of the most shielded areas of the ship, but warns that when the warp coils are online, the temperature in the catwalk area can reach over 300 degrees. Archer gives an order to start the evacuation of the personnel to the nacelle's catwalk. Archer goes to the sickbay to speak with the visitors after they were clear, the captain informs that already know that they are from Takret, a very far way system. Rellus says that their work often makes they go away from home, and his partner tells that they are a group of stellar cartographers. Archer asks if they could, after the storm, help to update Enterprise s starcharts, Rellus agrees and will be pleased to do that. The crew in all divisions of the ship start removing essential equipment to the nacelles' Catwalk. T'Pol goes to sickbay to see why Phlox is behind schedule. The doctor says he understands that she has allotted him 15 cubic meters for medical supplies, but it means there's only enough space for two-thirds of his animal cages. When the subcommander suggests that some of the creatures shares the cages, he replies it's impossible because they'll eat each other. Phlox says that the creatures are vital to his work and to the health of Enterprise s crew, and although unaccustomed to making emotional appeals, he urges that T'Pol not ask him to choose between them. She allots him an extra five cubic meters of space. Already in the nacelles, Commander Tucker apologizes that they are not first-class accommodations, and Rellus says there is no problem, he and his group are very grateful for Enterprise s hospitality. After Trip went out, one of Rellus' partners, Guri, tells him that he doesn't know anything about stellar cartography, and won't know what to answer if the earthlings start to make questions about this subject. Archer is packing his bags when he see the storm getting close in the window, T'Pol enters in his quarters and he confess that did not expect that it could be so beautiful, and regrets that will not be time to make some scans about it. She explains that as they will be in the nacelles for nearly eight days, it'll be possible to do all scans that he wants. She also tells him that Lieutenant Reed has completed his modifications, and Archer says that he is a little nervous about shutting down the power grid. T'Pol replies that a single neutronic surge could overload the grid and damage critical systems. Archer tells her that he did a little research in the Vulcan database, and has learned that the incident with the class 5 storm, a century ago, and the Vulcan starship T'Plana resulted in the loss of its crew, contradicting what she said earlier, that the ship was only nearly destroyed. T'Pol says that she must have remembered incorrectly. Archer enters the bridge to transfer the main systems controls to the temporary command room at the nacelles. commander Tucker gives the green light and the captain do it. He also orders to lieutenant Reed to shot off the Enterprise s main power. After see the bridge with the lights off, Archer leaves to the nacelles. Once in the temporary command post, he checks if the entire crew is safe, and make a brief speech to his subordinates: * "All hands, this is the Captain. This catwalk is going to be our home for a while. A week, maybe more. You may not be comfortable, but you'll be alive. We have the best crew in the fleet and the sturdiest ship. I promise you, we'll get through this." With the hull plating polarized, the Enterprise turns around and get direct into the wavefront, and confronts a huge space turbulence. After this, the worst the crew expects already have been past. Act Two Captain Archer is passing over the Catwalk to check how his crew is dealing with the situation, first the help a third class crewman with her crossword puzzle – the question was "who was the first Vulcan ambassador on Earth," he guessed that the answer was Solkar – talks to Ensign Sato, that thinks that this experience should cure anyone of claustrophobia. He finally reaches where the guests are, covered with several clothes, right at the side of Commander Tucker's place. Archer asks him how the visitors are doing, he doesn't know, the only thing that they do was that about a few hours ago, one of then came out to say that Tucker and his mates were doing too much noise. The captain says that they need a little time to adjust with the situation. Lieutenant Reed approaches Phlox in a hesitant manner, asking if he can depend on doctor-patient confidentiality. Phlox asks if this wouldn't have anything to do with gastrointestinal distress, as he saw an annotation about an unfortunate incident during zero G training in Malcolm's file. Reed tells him that was the EV simulator at Lunaport, also known as "the vomitorium." The doctor says there is nothing to be embarrassed about, as he has treated that day a number of crewmen for motion sickness, and applies a neurospray that should last about 12 hours. Reed thanks him and leave the "sickbay," at the right moment that the captain arrives. Archer says to Phlox that some of the equipment in his area could be relocated, but the doctor says there's no need, since he finds close quarters rather comforting. It reminds him of Denobula, where twelve billion people share a single continent. In the temporary bridge, Archer checks with Travis if the course is ok, and lies in the "bed" to get some rest, with T'Pol in his side. He starts to watch a water-polo game but stops when this bothers her and tries to sleep. T'Pol continues to use a PADD, which is a little distracting to Archer, and she stops too. Archer tells her that this situation has a bright side, because can bring the crew closer together, almost like a camping trip, and asks if T'Pol has ever gone camping. She tells him about the kahs-wan ritual: she was taken to the desert and left to survive for 10 days. He comments that she did not left the command area that day, and that she might want to wander around, get to know the crew and would be good for her to fraternize a little with them. T'Pol asks if that was an order, because she is not skilled in fraternizing, Archer thinks that is a good chance to improve it. Travis, Sato, Reed and Tucker are playing cards, and discussing about the need of a shower that, in Malcolm's view, was neglected by Trip, and about the movie that will be show in movie night. Meanwhile, Travis smells something burning, they find Rellus and his fellows cooking on top of a plasma manifold, making Trip very angry. Rellus apologizes and tells that they had trouble in digesting human food, commander says that will talk to chief if he can cook for them. Archer requests Trip presence at the temporary bridge. Once there, Archer tells him that there is a problem in Engineering, the antimatter injectors have come online, but Trip thinks that could be a glitch. While checking the systems, he complains to the captain about Rellus, and his partners, behavior, but Archer points out that Enterprise owe him for his warning about the Storm. Tucker realizes that the matter and antimatter injectors are online, which removes the possibility of a glitch, and the only way to shoot them down is by going to Engineering. Trip puts on an EV Suit that can protect him for only 22 minutes, in the Engineering, he notices some odd things and hears noises, hiding himself afterwards. Act Three While Trip is hiding out in Engineering he sees some people walking by. When the intruders go far, he leaves the place, but in his way, he sees more of them. He manages to get in T'Pol's quarters to be able to see the docking port, and there is a ship docked with Enterprise. Tucker accesses the camera in the bridge, where there are aliens making a mess. He makes a close-up of one of them and is able to see that he is from same species as Rellus. The aliens' leader is reading the Enterprise crew profiles in the captain's ready room, when another says that can't find a signal of the fugitives and tells that appears that the crew have deserted Enterprise. The leader believes that Archer may intend to return, since the humans have travelled over than 100 light years from Earth, and asks about the status of the warp engines, but there is some difficult to them with the dilithium matrix. The other alien leaves the ready room and he starts again to hear some old Archer starlogs. In the nacelles, Phlox confirms that Rellus' species are immune to radiolytic isotopes and the storm was never any threat to them. Archer asks the intruders who are they and what they're doing On Enterprise. Rellus tries to deny any relation between he and them, but the whole situation is too full of coincidences to this be true. Guri gives up and says that the aliens are officers of the Takret Militia, who've been pursuing them for weeks. They had hoped to evade them by hiding aboard Enterprise but the officers must have detected their vessel in Enterprise s launch bay. Archer asks why they are in pursuit, and Guri continues his explanation. He and his fellows used to be members of the militia in lower ranks, but after a year they realized that the commanding officers were corrupt, seizing alien vessels without provocation, murdering the crews and taking anything of value. Rellus' group tried to resign to their commissions but the militia wouldn't allow it, and they became deserters. He would have told Archer the truth but he wasn't sure that he would help. Guri says that if the militia find he and his partners, they will be executed. Rellus apologizes, but alerts captain that if the officers find them, they won't leave, they have captured vessels far less impressive than Enterprise. Reed tells captain that the Militia Officers are trying to re-initialize the warp reactor, what shows that they already decided to help themselves to Enterprise. T'Pol says that they obviously don't realize that the crew is in the Catwalk, and if they learn it, the crew will be in really danger. In the Engineering, Paltani tells the Militia Captain that the dilithium matrix is active and the warp reactor is ready to initialize, he orders him to bring the warp engines online, but he can't manage the helm controls, the navigation relays aren't responding, one of his officers is working on it but without any time prediction. Coming back to the nacelles, T'Pol states that Enterprise's crew may outnumber the Militia, but they only have 3 EV Suits. Reed tells that he can take a security team to get one more suit, however Trips doubts because the launch bay have a large amount of takrets, meanwhile they realize that the warp engines are online, and Tucker tells that will take a while for the warp coils to charge, but there are no more than 20 minutes to the nacelles became extremely hot. Act Four A team with T'Pol, Reed and Archer, wearing EV Suits, is preparing to go down, and receives a briefing from Trip and Sato. In the Bridge, Militia Captain asks about the helm controls, but his office had yet not make any progress, and thinks that they should leave Enterprise taking what they can carry because they could lost their ship during the storm. Captain does not want to know about it, and orders him to get helm control. The EV Suit Team splits, Captain goes to the kitchen and start to use some panels, meanwhile T'Pol and Reed arrive in a maniteance corridor, Trip gives instructions to them about how to shut off the injectors. In the bridge, the Militia are being hailed by someone inside the ship, it is Archer, he tells the Takret captain that he is the only survivor of the crew that was killed by the storm, and asks he to leave Enterprise. But he says that can't because he detected a vessel in the Launch Bay that belongs to three fugitives. Archer doesn't believe and tells that he knows that they are taking Enterprise, and won't let them do this. But the alien captain replies: Enterprise has been impounded under the authority of the Takret Militia, and they return to their home world, Archer will be charged with criminal conspiracy. After a brief discussion, Archer tells that have no choice, he must stop any attempt to let the ship be captured, he will destroy Enterprise. The Takret captain doesn't believe that he can do it, since Enterprise is the first Earth Warp 5 ship and also has his father's engine, Archer tells that he can be surprised and close the canal. In the temporary bridge, Archer tells Travis to he changes the course, heading to a plasma eddy. When trying to go back to the nacelles, the captain is intercepted by aliens, and starts a shooting at the kitchen. On the other side of the bridge, T'Pol and Reed are having trouble to disarm the engines, but the nacelles' temperature continues to increase. In the Real Bridge, the Takrets realize that Enterprise is changing course, to a plasma eddy with an ETA about 8 minutes, the captains wants the helm control, but Paltani doesn't believe that is possible and suggest that they should live, even in this situation, the commanding officer still thinks that Archer is bluffing. T'Pol finally managed to stop the warp reactor. Under intense turbulation, the Takret Captain is forced to tell his soldiers to retreat, orders everyone to go to the docking hatch, and they leave. In the temporary bridge, Archer confirms that the intruders left, and tell Travis to get out of the eddy. After a while, the crew is watching a movie night of a western film. Trip doesn't understand why one of the characters shoots one of his own men, but T'Pol explains that the dead man was secretly working for Sheriff Boggs. Tucker asks how she could know it, the Vulcan thinks that is obvious. Archer tells the crew that''Enterprise'' will leave the storm soon, and Trip invites T'Pol to join the next movie night. When everyone is getting out of the nacelles, Rellus Tagrim apologizes to the captain for the trouble and tells that he and his fellows intend to go to the Gyrannan system, which should be a safe place. Archer wishes good luck to them, and with T'Pol's help, closes the door that leads to the nacelles. Log Entries * Capitain's Starlog, September 18th, 2152. We have entered orbit of an uninhabited planet. Our scans show it's teeming with all sorts of plant and animal life. I will be leading a survey team to the surface. * Capitan's Starlog, supplemental. We seem to have passed through the worst part of the storm. But it will still be a while before we can leave the Catwalk. The crew is in relatively good spirits considering they haven't had a change of uniform in eight days. Memorable Quotes "Would you like to try out the Captain's chair?" (Camera pans to a cargo container) "Maybe later." '' : - '''Trip' and Archer "You're the captain. Can't you order the storm to calm down a little?" "I'll see what I can do." : - Hoshi and Archer "I understand we're explorers and we're supposed to keep an open mind about different cultures, but these guys are driving me crazy." : - Trip "What I wouldn't give for a shower right about now. When this hand's over, maybe you can look into building one." "Would you like a sauna while I'm at it?" "You knew we'd be stuck in here for over a week. You might have given a little thought to making it tolerable." "I only had four hours, Malcolm. You're lucky we've got a toilet!" "Well I obviously underestimated your peoples' abilities when it comes to indoor plumbing." "You want to take a shower? Build one yourself." : - Reed irritably complaining to a sarcastic Tucker "Did that guy shoot one of his own men?" "It's hard to tell them apart in those ridiculous hats." "The dead man was secretly working for Sheriff Boggs." "How do you know that?" "Isn't it obvious?" : - Charles Tucker, Malcolm Reed, and T'Pol, watching an episode of Kung Fu on a movie night Background Information *The concept for the episode originated from a magazine article read by writer Mike Sussman, about the radiation dangers faced by astronauts on any future Mars mission. Sussman noted that: "it seemed to me that the crew of ''Enterprise ... would be vulnerable to something like an ion storm, and there might be some kind of radiation-proof chamber they could evacuate to''". (''Star Trek Monthly'' issue 108) *Scott Burkholder previously played Hilliard in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode . Danny Goldring also starred on DS9 as Legate Kell in and Chief Burke in . *T'Pol mentions to Captain Archer that she participated in the kahs-wan ritual in which she was taken to the desert and left to survive for 10 days, a reference to . * This is the only episode that Chef is really seen, albeit with just his legs and his hands. * The playback of Archer's log is taken from . Links and references Starring *Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer *John Billingsley as Phlox *Jolene Blalock as T'Pol *Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed *Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather *Linda Park as Hoshi Sato *Connor Trinneer as Charles "Trip" Tucker III Guest Stars *Scott Burkholder as Rellus Tagrim *Zach Grenier as Renth *Danny Goldring as Alien Captain *Aaron Lustig as Guri Co-Stars *Brian Cousins as Alien Lieutenant *Sean Smith as Alien Crewman *Elizabeth Magness as Female Crewman Uncredited Co-Stars *Jeff Allen as a Takret Officer *Adam Anello as an operations division crewman *Craig Baxley, Jr. as a Takret Officer *Solomon Burke, Jr. as Billy *Mark Correy as Alex *Daphney Dameraux as an operations division ensign *Vince Deadrick, Jr. as a Takret Officer *Evan English as Ensign Tanner *Nikki Flux as a command division crewman *Hilde Garcia as Crewman Rossi *Hank Gartrel as a Takret Officer *Bryan Heiberg as an operations division crewman *Scott Hill as Ensign Hutchison *Aldric Horton as an operations division crewman *Amina Islam as a command division ensign *Baron Jay as an operations division crewman *John Jurgens as a command division crewman *Martin Ko as a command division ensign *Kyla Kuhner as an operations division crewman *Aouri Makhlouf as a medical crewman *Marnie Martin as an operations division crewman *Michael McAdam as a command division crewman *Marlene Mogavero as an operations division crewman *Bobby Pappas as an operations division crewman *Lidia Sabljic as a command division crewman *Richard "Isaac Hayes" Sarstedt as Chef *Jan Shiva as a science division crewman *Jessica Vash as a command division ensign *John Wan as an operations division crewman *Mark Watson as an operations division crewman *Todd Wieland as an operations division crewman *Cricket Yee as a science divsion crewman Stand-ins *David Keith Anderson as stand-in for Anthony Montgomery *Evan English as stand-in for Dominic Keating *Louis Ortiz *J.R. Quinonez as stand-in for John Billingsley *Richard Sarstedt as stand-in for Scott Bakula *Jessica Vash as **Stand-in for Jolene Blalock **Stand-in for Elizabeth Magness *Mark Watson as stand-in for Connor Trinneer *Cricket Yee as stand-in for Linda Park References ambassador; antimatter injector; Archer, Henry; barbeque; Boggs, Sheriff; broccoli; camping; catwalk; Chef; neutronic storm; claustrophobia; crossword puzzle; Day the Earth Stood Still, The; Denobula; Denobulans; dilithium matrix; doctor-patient confidentiality; Earth; Edosian slug; EV simulator; EV suit; galley; gastrointestinal distress; Grand Canyon; grav-plating; gravitational shear; Gyrannan system; ''Horizon'', ECS; kahs-wan; Kung Fu; latrine; Lunaport; Mazarite; monitor; motion sickness; movie night; neutronic radiation; neutronic wave front; osmium; PADD; pineapple cobbler; plasma eddy; plasma manifold; playing card; poker; pot roast; power grid; power transfer module; rafting; Shuttlepod 1; stellar cartography; Solkar; spatial turbulence; storage locker; strawberry shortcake; T'Plana; Takret; Takret Militia; Takret starship; Takret system; Tanner; toilet; V'Lar; "Vomitorium, The"; Vulcan; Vulcan database; warp coil; water polo; Zero-gravity training |next= }} cs:The Catwalk de:Der Laufsteg es:The Catwalk fr:The Catwalk ja:ENT:嵐を告げる男達 nl:The Catwalk Catwalk, The